Forget the rows and broken promises, the claims and counter claims, the outrageous PR stunts and the mysteriously one-sided reporting by some of his American critics. After nearly two years, David Haye looks as if he has finally got his hands on Wladimir Klitschko.

Some of us might regard that as extraordinarily convenient. Other wide-eyed types are prepared to believe Klitschko's promoter, Bernd Boente, when he tells ESPN.com's Dan Rafael: "The doctor checked Wladimir and said it is not possible to fight [on 30 April]. Why should anybody question it? However it looks, I can only tell you this is the truth and he is one of the top doctors in Germany."

Tell it to Frank Warren, Chisora's promoter, and send a copy to his solicitors. Tell it to Chisora, who heard the same story four days before they were to meet in December. Tell it to the kids down the phone box.

But it won't matter in the end, as long as Haye-Klitschko happens. This is an event to savour, the biggest heavyweight title fight for at least a decade.

It's almost certainly going to be in Germany on 25 June or 2 July; if it were to be held at the North Pole on Christmas Day, you could sell it.

There will probably be more nonsense before they make it a watertight deal, because it is the way people are in boxing: small-minded, egotistical and greedy. Boente has already doused the euphoria by saying that if Wlad can't get fit in time, Haye has to fight Vitali. I don't think Haye would be that bothered, although he clearly would prefer Wladimir, who is flakey.

Whatever people think about Haye and his big mouth, though, he knows better than Klitschko how to promote a fight. While Haye is not everyone's favourite person and he has said and done some truly daft things, he understands what Muhammad Ali understood, what Don King and Bob Arum still understand: there's money in garbage.

HAIL HATTON

Alleged latest Mexican sensation, Saul Alvarez, battered Matthew Hatton for 12 rounds in a fight billed as for the World Boxing Council's light-middleweight title but, in reality, a monument to everything that is cynical about professional boxing.

Although Hatton lost 119-108 on all three scorecards, he somehow emerged a winner.

It was the stubbornness and bottle he showed in enduring non-stop punishment and then even slinging some hopeless blows himself all the way to the end that earned him the admiration of a crowd who had come to laud a new hero.

"I'm a fighter through and through," the loser said redundantly. "I wish him all the best. He's a great fighter."

Hatton genuinely, if naively, thought he was in with a shout of winning a world title; as is nearly always the case, what was said afterwards gave the lie to what went before.

In no other era but this one would a boxer declare with a straight face moments after winning a sanctioned championship: "Maybe two more fights and I will be ready for the big fights in this division."

Yet that is what Alvarez said with the WBC's 11st belt around his waist. The winner and nearly everyone else knew the truth: this was just another 12-round bout with trimmings, one the main promoter, Oscar de la Hoya, was allowed to dress up as an introduction to the big time for his young star.

"I truly believe that he will be bigger than me," DLH said beforehand. Few dared to question the original Golden Boy, who is quickly becoming the most powerful figure in the business. The TV was in place, the tickets had been sold, the media had been seduced and the WBC had provided their grubby stamp of approval.

But, as I wrote before, neither fighter had a pedigree at light-middle, and the contest barely complied with either the WBC's own slack regulations or a fight contract as flexible as a Bob Arum promise.

On the night, it was announced as for the 154lb championship yet it had been set at a catchweight of 150lb. Alvarez couldn't even make that limit, and had to surrender 10%of his purse, $35,000 (£21,500), to Hatton. DLH reckoned it was because he was a growing lad; yet three months ago Alvarez, still only 20, fought at welterweight, where, like 29-year-old Hatton, he has been for most of his career.

Alvarez, the naturally bigger man, therefore had the green light to let his weight go, giving him a considerable advantage in size and strength, while Hatton still aimed at the 150lb catchweight he thought was their common target.

Had Hatton won against an opponent who outweighed him by maybe a stone on the night, he would have declared it the proudest moment of his life - and rightly so, because he would have beaten the odds and the system. But "the system" is always a fighter's invisible opponent.

GROVES TO MEET DEGALE

George Groves, the Commonwealth super-middleweight champion, had a four-round work-out beating up on Ghanaian lefty Daniel Adotey in Huddersfield on Saturday night and his promoter, Adam Booth, tells Boxingscene.com: "George has now taken on a southpaw and that is what we need because we are 11 weeks away from a fight against a southpaw in [British champion] DeGale. There will be something soon. There are emails flying about between us [Team Groves and Frank Warren] so we hope to work something out. This fight is going to happen."